The aim of this page is to help those who want to use a non-Canon PSU or an external battery power supply to run their cameras. This is essential for very long exposures, and for scripts that run continuously, monitoring a scene, for example, in a security camera or wildlife setting.

Please could people add in the pin polarity and voltages that their model of camera can run on.

Camera model

Pin polarity

Stated voltage

Peak current

Waiting

Half press

Full press

Zooming

Playback

Monitor on

Monitor off

Monitor on

Monitor off

Monitor on

Monitor off

Monitor on

Monitor off

A560

Outer pin -ve

3.15V

720mA

360

70

450

340

500

530

210

150

A590

Outer pin -ve

3.15V

A720IS

Outer pin -ve

2.95-3.15V

(4.2V tested - see note bellow)

920mA

350

85

450

350

500

400

450

190

160

A720IS note - I'v been trying to solve external AC power supply ,already had some 18650 li-ion cells in pairs (4800mAh) with 4.15V fully charrged. Using it for timelapses and so , for year or so, no problem so far. It can take around 10 000 !! shots with monitor turned off.

Edit:Hi, here how to build an external Akku with 18650 for Canon (german). And it takes 10'000s of shot's with monitor turned on!

To calculate the time a battery will last, take the capacity of the battery, then divide by the average current drawn.

For example: A monitoring application has the LCD on all the time, and is wired to a 1400mAH battery pack. Sitting in the half-press mode for almost all the time, this means the battery will last roughly 1400mAH/450mA = 3.1 hours. The same camera attached to a 12V SLA with 40AH capacity will last for roughly 40/.45 = 88.8 hours or 3.7 days. (Note that this ignores losses in the battery discharge and gains from voltage conversions.)